MLB The Show 21’s fielding gameplay has been massively overhauled, with developer Sony San Diego adding thousands of animations. As part of another fascinating livestream, the team details how it’s incorporated new mechanics like strafing to help you better position yourself to catch balls off the wall – and completely reinvented the release’s interface, so you know when to jump and which routes to run in both the infield and outfield.

The video does get a bit complicated if you’re not intimately familiar with the franchise, but it’s targeting hardcore players. There is a ton of PlayStation 5 gameplay footage along the way, and it’s looking extremely crisp – although it’s clearly iterating on the existing PS4 version, and thus doesn’t appear to be a gigantic stride forward visually. All the new animations have us excited, though – this is already shaping up to be the best playing incarnation of The Show to date.

[source youtube.com]